What The Arts, Entertainment Can Do To Aid National Development

THE GUARDIAN, SUNDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 2011 00:00
BY ANOTE AJELUOROU

THE drums have rolled long and hard for one of Nigeria’s finest stage and TV veterans on her attainment of three score and ten. Last Sunday at Tribeca at upscale Victoria Island, Lagos three theatre personalities Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Tina Mba and Wole Oguntokun put the stage matriarch on the hot seat to speak about her life-long profession and how she had excelled for which the drums were rolled out to celebrate her. She did not disappoint either, as she put up a class act so typical of her sterling qualities on stage, screen and in broadcast over the years that have earned her numerous accolades.

However, a different fervour was lent to the celebration of Taiwo Ajai-Lycett’s 70th birthday festivities when last Thursday, Taiwo and Kehinde Oluwafunsho of Twins Action Aid International (a collective of twins) put together a lecture in her honour to lend intellectual rigour to her work of several decades in the klieglight.

As usual, the gathering at the Lagos Television premises on Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos had a significant presence of prominent personalities in the arts and entertainment sub-sectors. They had come in solidarity with one of their own.
The list was endless: Amb. Segun Olusola, who chaired the event; Chief Opral Benson, Mrs. Francesca Emanuel, Prof. Yusuf Grilo, Oba Gbenga Sonuga and his Olori, Peju, Segun Sofowote, and wife, Motunrayo (both of Glowing Channels), Chief Taiwo Alimi, Rev. Bayo Awala, Alhaji Adegboyega Arulogun, Mrs Fagbayi-Mohammed, Chief Tunde Oloyede, Tunde Kelani, Olu Jacobs and his wife Joke Silva, Chief Frank Okonta, Femi Esho, Jimi Odumosu, Laolu Ogunniyi, Dr. Esohe Molokwu, Alhaji Teju Kareem, Lekan Ogunbanwo, who represented Lagos State governor Babatunde Fashola, Agatha Amata, Toyin Akinosho, Mufu Onifade among others.
There were amazing performances from the Oyo State Arts Council and that of Lagos with highlight being magical displays by some solo acts including the one-man razor-blade-chewing Sango dancer from Ibadan, and another acrobatic dancer with a bottle skillfully balanced on his head as he twisted his body in wild gyrations without the bottle falling off; drummers from the Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture also gave a performance.

It turned out a mini festival of sorts just as a mouth-drummer completed the circle of enthralling performances. Not left out were the over 10 set of twins and organisers that stepped out to serenade one of their own, Ajai-Lycett with songs and a group photograph.

Two eminent intellectuals, the Editorial Board Chairman of The Guardian, Dr. Reuben Abati and Executive Director of African Languages Technologies Initiative, Ibadan, Dr. Tunde Adegbola spoke on The Role of the Media and Entertainment Industry in Accelerating National Development.

While giving a preview of the event, Programme chairman of the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA, Jahman Anikulapo, gave kudos to those who had come to be regarded as the fathers and mothers of the arts (including entertainment), industry, “whose staying power, tenacity, industry and commitment sustained and nurtured the industry to where it is today, be it Nollywood or hip hop music”. He therefore, asked younger artists “to learn at their feet”. He said that Training and Mentorship are vital means by which artists of today can develop their skills and make their creative enterprise and career last longer like that of the celebrant who had spent over 50 years on stage and screen, and still remain evergreen.
Also, Anikulapo, giving what was termed the ‘welcome address’, recalled what he called ‘Minutes of the Last Meeting’ -- being resolutions from the Arthouse Forum that the CORA had staged the Sunday before the Lecture — tasked doctoral students in the nation’s tertiary institutions to look inward in their search for thesis materials and for them to shed the mentality of always working on foreign subjects. He advised lecturers ad supervisors to guide their students so they could source their subjects from materials available at home. He maintained that there were enough local subjects to research on like the matriarch being celebrated for her exemplary qualities in the arts.

He mentioned that arts writers and culture journalists ought to think seriously in the direction of documenting the careers of the many veteran and accomplished artistes in teh society, saying, “this could be a veritable means of earning that much-needed extra inclome’. He further charged artists in the country to align themselves with the different arts’ bodies so their interests could be catered for, and for them to shun needless divisions that had worked against interests of artists and the arts over the years.

Chairman of the event Amb. Olusola affirmed that the event represented the strong bond that existed amongst artists, saying, “This is who we are in the performing arts in this country and the world. I thank the organisers for using the occasion to remind us who we are. I congratulate Taiwo on this occasion; she is the reference point in the arts”.
Dr Abati stressed on the importance of culture to national development and urged Nigeria to study the examples of other countries that had exploited the potentials of the creative industries to build a viral economy. He also reminded that the industries in the arts, if fully developed could help to harness the resources of the youths to engage them in the process of national development.
In his presentation, Adegbola said there was a need to accelerate development in the country after it had witnessed stunted growth in the last 50 years occasioned by long military rule. He noted that as development is tied to human needs, it is imperative that the media be strengthened to play its role of communicating the right values as it was what defined the human family.

“Media,” he charged, “is the bearer of our humanity; media carries what we communicate and entertainment makes communication compelling. Nigeria needs a multi-cultural, ethnic and lingual media and entertainment to be able to accelerate its level of development, especially as tools for social and political mobilization of the citizenry into affirmative action. There has been some explosion of development in the media and entertainment.”
Adegbola traced the history of Nollywood starting from milestone Living in Bondage and how that experiment brought about an explosion in the industry. He enumerated the problems the industry had faced but affirmed that its existence and style of delivery had posed a puzzle to many across the globe, saying, “Its unusual business model is still a puzzle to many scholars and others alike”. For Adegbola, the role of the media “is to jolt society from its settled state of inertia to new ways of doing things from the traditional ones so as to move forward”.

Following from the way Nollywood came into existence, Adegbola said he was not sure the industry was designed as a tool for development, saying it had largely not sprung from a collective historical experience. He noted that there was a need for Nigerians to look at themselves and the entertainment industry with a view to harnessing it for development. In view of the dire developmental challenges the nation had to surmount after its 50 years of existence, Adegbola argued that it would be foolhardy to dwell on the luxury of arts-for-art-sake, saying “art has to be art for development; we have to use our art to represent ourselves in ways that would move us forward; development is about human beings. Arts must play its part”.

On her part, Ajai-Lycett, obviously overwhelmed with the outpouring of emotions for her, said, “I can’t believe I’m 70. What greater honour than this gathering. This is the best time of my life, and I thank you for making my life worthwhile, for sharing my life’s moment. It’s not me but it’s always about you gathered here that I have existed. If I die tomorrow (it’s with the certainty that) I have lived!”
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